1. |
The Watch
03:02
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A widow’s walk
A shore awash in blood
A carcass rots
This will be a day of bones
We walk among them
like empty cages
We will walk among
The cages empty
Empty
Caged
Empty
Cage
The starving scream of gulls
An unforgiving sky
Flesh is torn like faith
We burn these bones for light
We dig this grave
We turn this soil
Pat flat the sod
Just walk away.
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2. |
There Will Be No Sleep
01:26
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Count the wings of ravens
under bent beak and claw
a corpse for the taking
eyes wide for the dawn
there will be no sleep
only the dreaming
only the voices
only the fall
bear the weight of cities
yoked to your shoulders
crawl like the winter
fall like the snow
swallow the shadow
choke on the bones
Wake blind with terror
Lost and alone.
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3. |
A Darkness Surrounds Him
02:36
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The mask that you live in
Will be the prison where you die
Choking on broken teeth
As rotten as your life
You are every unwanted word
You are every set of eyes
The mask that you live in
Will be the prison where you die
The stench of fear,
The heat of baited breath
and frozen screams
There is no prayer
There is no hope or grace
Just lessons taught by
Hands of strange men
The way home
Is so far
Because of us
Carve out the lies
rip out the spoiled meat
and rancid hearts
There is no cure
We are the rotting flesh
Just cancer grown inside of
kings and saviors
Her way home
Is so long
Because of us
Are we etched into silence
Underneath these stones
Because we are not this body
We are not these bones.
Because we are not this body
We are not these bones.
The mask that you live in
Will be the prison where you die
Choking on broken teeth
As rotten as your life
You are every unwanted word
You are every set of eyes
The mask that you live in
Will be the prison where you die
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4. |
Faltering Stars
02:26
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I want to stop picturing
The day they find your body--
Unmoving and boneless
Stagnant creekwater
Under an overpass
Passed over and naked
clothed in a shroud of
Tired and unwashed skin
On my worst days
I’m betting you’d smell just
Like surrender
If you didn’t reek of
The shame that kept
silencing your light
On my worst days
I wonder if this is how
You’ll look when we find you
Eyes off and to the right
Not a natural pose
Turned and held by gravity
You’ll be white belly limp
Loose unjointed limbs
They will turn your head and
Your neck will hold
No more light
And your veins
Will carry no more
faltering Stars
And your veins
Will carry no more
faltering Stars
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5. |
Already Dead
02:00
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Carve my bones into a crucifix
Offer up these nail scarred hands
Only tongue i speak is blasphemy
Maybe now they’ll understand
You can’t kill what is already dead
You can’t kill what is already dead
Prepared for the deepening silence
Words rotting on my tongue
Fading fast in the darkness visible
Only doing what must be done
I can’t see
Can’t hear
Can’t touch
An apparition
A memory of
From my place at the bottom
Looking up at the sky
Into the gathering darkness
It gets harder to try
As for these slings and arrows
And your well tempered blades
You’ll find nothing but shame here
And the mouth of a grave
You can’t kill what is already dead
You can’t kill what is already dead
Cast me out
Cast me out
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6. |
The Day The Locusts Came
01:42
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the empty prayer
the hollow earth
the blackened tree
the wasted births
come to carry
All that you love away.
I will bear no sons
I will spread no seed
No one to protect
This ends with me
The adversary
The nemesis
The cross you bear
that persists
the shadow cast
the broken bough
That casts you down
always pray for rain
& hope it fucking drowns you
Swallowed by the throat
Of every God that damns you.
I Hope everything you fear is true and
I Hope all that you love Is carried away
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Empty Ritual Asheville, North Carolina
Steve-Vocals
Matt-Guitar
Dave-Drums
Mark-Guitar
Jacob-Bass
Demo cassette available 3/24/17 from Bitter Melody Records.
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